Skip to main content
ReferralCandy 101

How referral programs work with ReferralCandy

Adam avatar
Written by Adam
Updated this week

What is the referral workflow?

The referral workflow below is the step-by-step process that participants in your referral program go through. There are two important participant roles in the referral process:

  • Advocate - An individual enrolled in your referral campaign

  • Referred friend - An individual referred by an Advocate

Interested in running an affiliate program? Subscribe to the AffiliatePlus (Beta) add-on. Sign up for the early beta access in the ReferralCandy web app or Shopify app.

How do referral programs work with ReferralCandy?

When a customer makes a purchase, signs up via a form, or is imported to a segment, they are registered as contacts in your account. If the customer meets the criteria of a segment targeted by your campaign (for example, a lifetime spend greater than $50) they are successfully enrolled in your campaign, and the contact becomes an Advocate.

Once enrolled, the Advocate receives their unique referral link which they can share with their friends. When the Advocate makes a referral that meets the reward conditions you set, the Advocate receives a reward in the form of cash, discount coupon, or a custom reward that you must fulfill on your end.

See the below diagram for an example of how ReferralCandy works:

For a deeper breakdown of sections [A] and [B], see the links below:


What is the referral campaign map?

The goal of the referral campaign map is to provide you with insight into each step of the campaign and where you can tweak or implement changes.

Note: There are more parts to the map, but our main focus is to simply help you visualize the most important parts and where and when they affect the campaign.

How do referral campaigns work with ReferralCandy?

The referral campaign map or the campaign process has 4 steps:

  1. Contact Registration - Customers are automatically registered for your campaign via purchase, signup, or when you manually import them to a segment. Once registered, they become contacts in your account.

  2. Campaign Enrollment - On your ReferralCandy dashboard, you choose a segment to set as the target audience of your campaign. All customers who meet the criteria of the targeted segment are automatically enrolled in your campaign.

  3. Invitation to Refer - Once enrolled, contacts become Advocates. Advocates receive their unique referral link, and an invitation to refer friends through the invite email or widgets.

  4. Advocate Referral - Enrolled Advocates can start referring friends by sharing their unique referral link through the invite email or widgets. When a referred friend makes a successful purchase, ReferralCandy reviews the purchase and the Advocate receives the pending reward email.

  5. Advocate Reward - Once the system confirms that the referred purchase is legitimate (for example, no refunds or returns), and the purchase meets the conditions you set, the Advocate receives the successful reward email along with their reward.

New to ReferralCandy? Read our Getting Started article to learn how to set up and launch your referral or affiliate campaign with us!


๐Ÿ’ฌ Need help? Click the chat widget on the right to start a conversation. Learn more


Did this answer your question?